briefings, and committee meetings. c-span giveus a front row seat to how issues are debated and decided with no commentary, no interruptions, and completely unfiltered. c-span. your unfiltered view of government. >> senator chris koontz is a member o the foreign relations committee. he talked about the situation in gazamithe israel-hamas war and dcusses his most recent mein with prime minister netanyahu when he stressed the importance of moving civilians out of rafa fo military action. he told the leade y don't have the right to defend the israeli people against ham, you have the obligation. you have to go after them. you have toinish the job. you have to go into rafa. here are his remarks. vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: madam president, i come to the floor today to speak

for a few moments about the urging, pressing matter about americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad. mr. coons: and about a specific positive recent development, to make sure when they are released and freed, they are welcome home in a positive and meaningful way. today there's somewhere between 30 and 40 americans wrongfully detained abroad and they range all over from the backgrounds to the countries of which they're held. i met repeatedly with rachel and john, parents of an american israeli attending a music festival when he was attacked, badly injured, kidnapped by hamas terrorists and dragged to gaza where he is still today a hostage beneath gaza in tunnels. ryan corbet has been held in afghanistan for years, an ngo worker who was abducted by the

taliban, mike has been held in china on narcotics trafficking charges, a sentence upheld recently but not yet imposed. and of course evan gershkovich, a "wall street journal" reporter currently in prison in russia whose mother i met with recently and who i joined with his family in continuing to pray and work for his release. there has recently been a positive step forward in how we welcome home these hostages, but first, madam president, i have to tell you something disturbing about how we have long welcomed home hostages. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mr. coons: jason is a "washington post" reporter who was taken prisoner in iran and ultimately served a year and a half, 544 days in prison in tehran before he was released. and i want you to guess what was the first thing jason got from

the u.s. government when he returned home? it was a tax bill with fines and penalties for his failure to file and pay his taxes on time. jason came to meet with me and recounted to me that when he pointed out to the irs that it was front page news in "the washington post" that he was unjustly imprisoned, of course he couldn't pay his taxes on time, they said we'd like to help you but congress needs to act in order for us to stop imposing tax penalties on american hostages. so today i'm here to celebrate that my dear friend, mike rounds, republican senator and i have introduced and the senate has now passed a bill with the catchy title stop tax penalties on american hostages. it cleared unanimously, thank you. and we now await house action. this is the latest in a number

of actions several of us have taken together. there is now a national hostage and wrongful detainee day. it was recognized by a bill that was passed in the defense authorization bill last year and signed into law by president biden. that's march 9. we're also working on legislation to repair the credit score of those who are wrongfully imprisoned, held hostage or detained. as you can imagine, if you spend years in prison in russia or iran or being held captive in afghanistan or in gaza and you aren't making payments on your bills, your credit score suffers. so senator tillis and i are hoping next to move the fair credit for american hostages act. let me conclude by saying this. we have to do more together to deter hostage taking, to restore to the united states those who have been wrongfully detained, to cooperate across our government. i am grateful that the biden administration has increased its

focus on this urgent moral issue, and that 47 wrongfully detained americans have been brought home so far under the present administration. but frankly, all of us should be working together to hold in our prayers and thoughts those who are hostages, those who are wrongful detainees and their loved ones and to work together, as senator rounds and i have in recent weeks, and as the congress as a whole will in coming days. thank you, madam president. mr. cornyn: will the senator yield for a question? mr. coons: the senator will so yield. mr. cornyn: madam president, i have a great deal of respect for the senator from delaware and we worked well together on the judiciary committee and always operated in good faith, even though we sometimes have differences of opinion. and i know he spends a lot of time thinking about national security and foreign relations affairs. he's traveled the world and knows more leaders of the different countries around the

world than i ever will. but i do know that since he shares the concerns about the status, particularly the american citizens who are host hostages in gaza, i'd just like to get some idea if him what his thoughts are about the administration's pause on weapons delivery to gaza -- to ice. and let me predicate this by saying i remember back when -- of course, we were concerned about al qaeda and fallujah where the marines fought a terrible battle. any time there's a conflict, there's going to be civilian casualties and obviously the goal is to minimize those casualties. likewise in places like mosul where isis made its last stand in iraq. and i would just like to get some idea from the senator if he

would be so kind as to share with me his authorities are of what israel is supposed to do in rafah, obviously to satisfy the concerns about civilian collateral damage but also in a way that allows israel to eliminate the terrorist threat. mr. coons: madam president, i appreciate the opportunity to speak to what is a pressing concern for so many of us. i'll simply reflect on my last in-person meeting with prime minister netanyahu and defense minister gallant in israel now many weeks ago. i was part of a visit i made to a number of countries in the region. but i spoke directly to this and i believe what i'm saying also reflects the views of the administration. of course the united states stands strongly behind israel and its defense and its security. secretary defense austin when asked this same question about what it might mean that there were pauses or reviews of weapons deliveries, what that might mean. just yesterday he said that the

administration of the united states remains an ironclad commitment, retains an ironclad commitment to israel's security and defense as just demonstrated a few weeks ago when we worked together with israel, with the u. kfrments, with france, with saudi kingdom and jordan to provide their defense against 300 missiles and drones launched at israel by iran. so what is it that we're saying with regards to rafah? what i said to the prime minister was you don't just have the right to defend the israeli people against hamas. you have the obligation. after october 7 you have to restore a essential of security and deterrence against this terrorist organization that massacred more jews, more civilians, 1200 people of a wide range of backgrounds in fact. it was the worst day for jews since the holocaust but many who are still held captive beneath gaza by hamas are from a dozen different nations, languages,

and re-lilling -- rngs. you have to go after rafah and the four remaining battalions and secure gaza and make sure hamas does not reemerge as a fighting force that could ever threaten israel again. and given that there are a million civilian refugees who have flown down to the very bottom of gaza and up against the hard border with egypt and egypt will not allow any of them into egypt, you have to provide a pathway for civilians to leave rafah before you go in at scale with a bombing campaign, a ground campaign, to minimize civilian injuries and deaths. if there are 10,000 or so hamas fighters remaining in rafah and if the multiplier, to use a crass term, has been 2-1 civilian deaths for every hamas fighter killed to contemplate 20,000 or 30,000 more civilian

deaths in rafah is to contemplate a horrifying outcome. but it is not acceptable to leave hamas in control of a segment of gaza and capable of returning. so what is it i am hoping and expecting israel will do? to relocate all of the civilians in rafah north in gaza, screen them so that none of the leaders of hamas or the fighters of hamas escape, to provide for humanitarian aid and for shelter in another part of gaza, and then to go in at scale, get into the tunnels, secure the release of the hostages if possible, and finish the job. that is difficult but in my voodooable. and for -- doable. and for us to ignore the cons conventions of using american weapons at scale in a very heavily concentrated place where there's a million refugees there because they were told to move south as the idf carried out its justified campaign against hamas over the last six months would

be to undertake a tragic logs of life that is needless. madam president, at this point i'm inclined to yield unless the senator has a following question for me. mr. cornyn: madam president, i appreciate the comments of my friend and colleague from delaware. i'm reassured by his commitment to making sure that israel will have the capacity too actually -- to actually eliminate the terrorist threat which of course is an existential threat. hamas, a approximate yil of iran, wants to wipe israel off the map. this is not a conflict of choice. it's an existential fight by the israeli people. and of course no one wants any civilian casualties, collateral damage. and from the news reports that i read and see, it looks to me like the israelis are trying to provide a safe passage for many of the refugees who, as the senator says, have moved south but now they're up against the

hard border of egypt with nowhere else to go. so my hope is, as he said, that they will be given safe passage if they can to some place where they won't be in harm's way. but again to me the bottom line is we have to give israel the flexibility they need to eliminate the threat. we would ask for nothing less if it were us as it has been in places like mosul and fallujah in the past. and so i appreciate the senator for responding. again, i'm reassured by his comments, but i hope, i hope we never are so arrogant or so -- that we think we can dictate or micromanage a conflict in a foreign country thousands of miles away when they're in a fight for their lives. thank you very much. i appreciate my colleague.

mr. coons: madam president, if i might extend my remarks briefly and then conclude. there is another path, one which bipartisan group of us have worked hard to support and that i hope is still possible. and this path forward, which i also discussed directly with prime minister netanyahu, was given real life just two weeks ago, three weeks ago when iran attacked israel. and israel's defense against these iranian missiles and drones was, yes, primarily provided by missile systems and by israeli jets, but also by the cooperation and assistance of the saudis, the jordanians, the americans, and the british. there is another path forward where ending hamas in gaza and the region is the joint project of the saudis, the egyptians, the jordanians, and that there is an end to the arab-israeli conflict. it was exactly that prospect that helped precipitate the hamas attack of october 7.

yes, hamas is a hateful terrorist organization. it's dedicated to eradicating israel and killing jews. but the timing, the timing of the october 7 attack was very closely aligned to when a final next step in saudi-israeli reconciliation was about to move forward. they have been determined to prevent peace. there is a way forward whereby hamas may be eliminated from having any role in gaza and the west bank and in the future of the region by a regional cooperation which could be facilitated by achieving peace. and that is also much to be and that is also much to be >> the house will be in order. >> this year, c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979 we have been your primary source for capitol hill. for